Lackluster Numbers for Android Wear

February 12, 2015

By Developer.com Staff

A new report from researchers at Canalys finds that manufacturers shipped only 720,000 devices based on Android Wear, the version of Android for wearable devices, during the last six months of 2014. The Wall Street Journal points out, "Apple sold almost as many iPhones each day as makers of Android smartwatches shipped over the six months."

Daniel Matte, a research analyst at Canalys, summed up the report, noting, "Android Wear is not very good." Many of the smartwatches and other wearable devices based on the platform have very short battery life. He added that part of the problem is that the mobile development industry hasn't created many apps for the devices yet. "We don’t have the third-party software ecosystem for smartwatches that we have for smartphones," said Matte. "It’s still early."